Say What? Obama gets Peace prize

  Don’t you have to do something to win the Nobel Peace prize? I don’t get it. What is this? A makeup for losing the Olympics?

I read that there were 205 nominees. And they picked Obama. Something is rotten in Denmark Oslo…

 By KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE, AP

OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.

Click here to read the rest.

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Two good reasons to leave Afghanistan

Cartoon by Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE

Technorati Tags: editorial cartoons

Cocaine Vaccine Nullifies the Effect, Helps Abusers Quit

By Susannah F. Locke

Researchers have shown for the first time today that a vaccine can help reduce drug abuse. There's currently no FDA-approved treatment to get people off of cocaine (or crack), so this could really help out the 2.5 million Americans dependent on cocaine.

Thirty-eight percent of drug abusers who were given the vaccine produced anti-cocaine antibodies. Over the course of seven weeks, these subjects were 45 percent likely to have a cocaine-free pee test, as opposed to 35 percent for those who got placebo vaccine instead.

The vaccine works similar to vaccines for microorganisms, training your body to view cocaine as a bad invader. The shots, which include a cocaine-like substance (succinylnorcocaine), encourage the body to pump out antibodies against cocaine. The antibodies bind to the coke, which prevents it from getting into the brain, and theoretically prevents people from getting high. Right now, only about 38 percent of the subjects who got the vaccine produced high levels of antibodies, so there's room for improvement.

Study leader Dr. Thomas Kosten, a psychiatrist at Baylor College of Medicine, told Popsci.com that they're planning to confirm the results in a larger study in six cities in January and that the vaccine could become widely available in two to three years.

The study was published in the October issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Story from Popsci.com

Society Symbols for dummies…

from http://www.loleg.com/blog

A War of Absurdity…

 Two weeks ago I weighed in on our war in Afghanistan - “History shows why we should get out of Afghanistan” – This article, on the same subject, goes into more depth than I was able to within the confines of my word limit.

Scheer also points out facts showing al-Qaida is practically a non-presence in Afghanistan.

By Robert Scheer

Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd. That was my reaction to the recent statement of the president’s national security adviser, former Marine Gen. James Jones, concerning the size of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan:

“The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”

Less than 100! And he is basing his conservative estimate on the best intelligence data available to our government. That means that al-Qaida, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan—so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere? Because of the blind belief, in the minds of those like John McCain, determined to “win” in Afghanistan, that if we don’t escalate, al-Qaida will inevitably come back.

Read the rest here via Truthdig 

Photo Credit: Flickr/The U.S. Army

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A stupid stunt by a stupid woman

Cops: Alabama mother had daughter, 13, ride in box atop minivan

Meet Jackie Knott. The Alabama woman, 37, is facing a child endangerment rap for allegedly having her teenage daughter ride in a cardboard box atop her minivan as it traveled along an interstate highway Saturday morning. Knott, pictured in the below Albertville Police Department mug shot, told cops that her 13-year-old daughter Haley was serving as a human paperweight to keep the box from falling off the vehicle (and careening down U.S. 431). While Knott explained that the box was too large to fit inside her van, it is unclear why she did not seek to simply flatten it in an effort to squeeze the box into her crowded vehicle. When stopped by cops, Knott, a Boaz, Alabama resident, noted that "the box was tied to the van with a clothes hanger," according to a police press release. That assurance did not sway cops, who arrested Knott in the shadow of a Tyson Foods poultry processing facility, according to an October 3 police report.

Photo and text via The Smoking Gun

Technorati Tags: child endangerment,stupid woman

Tree House for Serious Tree Huggers

There was a time “tree huggers” were an issue in Humboldt County. Nowadays you just don’t hear much about them. That is until I found this article in the WebUrbanist

Written by Urbanist

So you are really passionate about trees want to take your tree house adventures to the next level? These tree houses are not just amazing to behold but are actually complex protest structures. By locking onto and relying on the surrounding trees for support they prevent logging of large old-growth trees while providing an amazing living experience to their residents.

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Pot smoking 'saved' Kevin Smith

 The king of stoner moviemakers, Kevin Smith, never really smoked much marijuana until Seth Rogen talked him into it last summer, he says.

Now he sparks up at least three times a day and credits pot for helping him to dig his way out of a creative slump.

Not the sort of advice responsible parents, doctors or educators are likely to embrace, Smith told The Post's Don Kaplan, "I know you're supposed to tell kids not to do drugs, but, kids, do it! Do weed! Don't do the other stuff, but weed is good . . . What you want to do is what I did, build a movie empire and, at age 38, smoke it all away."

Smith is pushing his new book, "Shooting the S - - t With Kevin Smith," a project he claims he didn't even write because it's a transcription of SModcast, his regular podcast with pal Scott Mosier. "I did so little work to put this book together, but I did everything to make the podcast happen, so by virtue of that I am the author," he says.

Click here to read the rest at the New York Post online

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33 Ways To Get And Keep Yourself Motivated

Being motivated is a wonderful state of your being. In that state your body leverages huge amounts of energy. Your emotional field is totally balanced, physically you’re able to climb the Everest and mentally you understand the whole Universe in a split of a second. I know you know the feeling. The good news is that you can re-create this state pretty much whenever you want. Here are 33 tips to help you get and stay motivated. By the way, if you’re into long lists, you may also check this one: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life.

1. Ignore The Unimportant

Learning to ignore is a fantastic lesson. Much more rewarding that you think. There must be an art of ignoring and they should teach it in universities. Spanning your focus in so many areas will only weaken you. Ignoring what’s unimportant will free up energy and help you stay focused and productive.

Click here to read the rest at Dragos Roua – The choice of a personal path

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Now this is how to rob a bank

The G4S facility outside Stockholm that was spectacularly robbed

“Show you have a sense of humor by placing a bag outside the cops’ helicopter hanger with the word BOMB written on it. This will stop the police chasing you in the sky.

Scatter small sharp objects on the roads around the bank you’re targeting to slow down approaching police cars.

Rather than targeting a regular bank, choose a facility that stores banknotes for them.

Get schematics of the building.

Plan the raid for the day before people get paid, so there’ll be lots of cash kicking around.

Hover the chopper over the bank while your men abseil in.

Have a pilot so good that authorities suspect military experience.

Set off some minor explosions to get to the cash.

Chuckle at the cops as they try to get into the fortified building using a battering ram.

Leave all the staff unharmed.

Return to the helicopter and fly into the pre-dawn sky.

Land the chopper in a field.

Disappear into the woods with the loot.

Roll around in your money.”

thanks to The Punch for the above photo and article.

Roomba Art: vacuum versatility is arty

People love the Roomba. Why? Because it allows you to vacuum a room while sitting on the couch. Also because it seems more attainable than the Segway. And then a cat rode one, and it was glorious. Now comes something truly groundbreaking -- Roomba art. As far as we can tell, the trend started on a blog called Signal Theorist, who got the idea to set up a camera, turn off all the lights, and take a long-exposure photo of the Roomba's path as it "did its thing." The result looked like an awesomely psychedelic electrical spider web. Now more people are getting inspired to try variations on the same technique, and the creativity seems to be concentrated in the Flickr group, Roomba Art.

• The above image that started it all, via signaltheorist
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